macintosh Archives

The Post-Dispatch may be giving the wrong idea about the dollar value of vintage computers

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing February 6, 2014September 15, 20251541, 1980s, 1990s, amiga, apple, apple ii, Apple Lisa, collectibles, commodore, commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, compaq, dell, hp, IBM, macintosh, radio shack, recycling, VGA, XT

Disclaimer: I wrote this article back in 2014. I leave it here as a snapshot of the state of how things were in 2014. The situation at the time you are reading this is likely different.

Articles like Top 10 collectibles for value, from the Post-Dispatch this week, frequently make me nervous, mostly because of statements like this one:

[D]id you know that computer parts can bring home cash, too?

Statements like that tend to get people’s hopes up way too high. I find the timing interesting though, seeing as a TRS-80 Model 1 sold at a St. Louis estate sale this past weekend. The estate seller’s reaction? “Normally you can’t give that stuff away.”

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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IBM PCjr and Tandy 1000

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 29, 2014September 26, 20221980s, apple, apple ii, christmas, commodore, commodore 64, IBM, ibm pcjr, lenovo, macintosh, mainframe, Personal Computer, radio shack, Tandy, tandy 1000, XT

On January 29, 1984, two computers hit the market. One was Apple’s Macintosh. It needs no introduction. The other was the IBM PCjr. It was a little less successful. We’ll talk about what this has to do with the Tandy 1000 in a minute.

The PCjr is one of the biggest flops in computing history. Few people know much more about it than that. It ended up being an important computer, but it certainly didn’t meet IBM’s expectations. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Sculley on Jobs

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing September 11, 2013September 16, 20231980s, amiga, apple, apple ii, Apple Lisa, atari, commodore, IBM, Korea, macintosh, pixar, Steve Jobs, Toy Story

John Sculley famously fired Steve Jobs in September 1985, a move that’s pretty universally panned today. Nearly 28 years later, Forbes asked Sculley about it.

Here’s the money quote:

“He was not a great executive back in those early days. The great Steve Jobs that we know today as maybe the world’s greatest CEO, certainly of our era, he learned a lot in those years in the wilderness.”

Dave Farquhar

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No, this doesn’t mean Ubuntu and Linux are giving up

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Software June 1, 2013January 6, 20251980s, amd, amiga, android, apple, atari, commodore, compaq, IBM, intel, ipad, Libre Office, macintosh, Microsoft Office, motorola, Packard Bell, red hat, ubuntu, unix, windows 8, XT

This week, Mark Shuttleworth closed the longstanding Ubuntu bug #1, which simply read, “Microsoft has majority market share.” Because Microsoft didn’t lose its market share lead to Ubuntu, or Red Hat, or some other conventional Linux distribution, some people, including John C. Dvorak, are interpreting this as some kind of surrender.

I don’t see it as surrender at all. Microsoft’s dominant position, which seemed invincible in 2004 when Shuttleworth opened that bug, is slipping away. They still dominate PCs, but PCs as we know it are a shrinking part of the overall computing landscape, and the growth is all happening elsewhere.

I have (or at least had) a reputation as a Microsoft hater. That’s a vast oversimplification. I’m not anti-Microsoft. I’m pro-competition. I’m also pro-Amiga, and I’ll go to my grave maintaining that the death of Amiga set the industry back 20 years. I have Windows and Linux boxes at home, my wife has (believe it or not) an Ipad, and at work I’m more comfortable administering Linux than Windows right now, which seems a bit strange, especially considering it’s a Red Hat derivative and I haven’t touched Red Hat in what seems like 400 years.

What Shuttleworth is acknowledging is that we have something other than a duopoly again, for the first time in more than 20 years, and the industry is innovating and interesting again. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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The trouble with bringing your own software

Dave Farquhar security, Software May 3, 2013November 22, 20181990s, adobe creative suite, apple, hp, macintosh, micron, Microsoft Office, Missouri, office 2007, pc magazine, university of missouri, windows 2000, windows 7

PC Magazine is advocating a bring your own laptop, with your own software approach to business. It likens it to mechanics who bring their own tools.

The trouble is that while mechanical tools in a toolbox operate autonomously and don’t interfere with one another, software residing on a computer does. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Mark Hurd doesn’t sound like he’s just what Dell needed

Dave Farquhar Hardware March 25, 2013March 24, 2013apple, asus, compaq, dell, hp, IBM, macintosh, mark hurd, Michael Dell, oracle

Word on the street is that Blackstone Group has a plan for turning around Dell: Buy the company, take it private, and install Mark Hurd as CEO. The thinking is that he’s available, has experience, and would have baggage keeping him from being the CEO of a public company.

I just see one glitch. Available != good fit.

Dave Farquhar

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And this is why I’ve been saying to uninstall Java, rather than disable it

Dave Farquhar Software March 17, 2013March 16, 2013apple, macintosh, vulnerability

Apple just uncovered and fixed a vulnerability that allowed an exploit to re-enable Java in a browser when it’s been disabled, which then of course allows a litany of exploits.

There are two lessons here. Macintoshes are hackable just like any other device, and latent software can be re-enabled. If you don’t think someone’s trying to do the same thing in Windows and Linux, you’re not paying attention.

Dave Farquhar

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The men (boys) who spy on women through webcams

Dave Farquhar security March 13, 2013November 3, 2025antivirus, Ars Technica, avast, Bit Defender, bitdefender, chrome, defense in depth, firefox, macintosh, malware, Malware Domains, malwarebytes, Microsoft Security Essentials, Task Manager

Ars Technica made a bit of a splash this week with this provocative headline. This is real.

The article gives the usual advice, like not opening e-mail from strangers, not clicking attachments from strangers, and not visiting dodgy websites. That’s all good advice, as is staying off torrent and other file sharing sites, but even all that is not enough.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

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If you needed another reason not to buy Windows 8….

Dave Farquhar Windows January 21, 2013April 30, 2024apple, macintosh, nintendo, office 2010, vista, windows 7, windows 8, Windows 9

I’m still waiting for someone I know to tell me they like Windows 8. I’ve seen some strangers online say they like it, but not a lot of them, and many of them appear to be astroturfers because they just like it too much. I’m sure Apple loves it, because, like my boss told me, a lot of older apps (like anything older than Office 2010) won’t run on Windows 8. So, if you have to re-buy all your software anyway, what advantage is there to buying a Windows 8 machine over a Macintosh?

In fact, that’s exactly what his parents did. They gave up on Windows entirely and bought a Mac Mini.

The other approach, of course, is to buy a Chromebook. A lot of people seem to be doing that too, seeing as it’s the best-selling laptop on Amazon–so much so that they don’t have any stock, and third-party sellers are scalping them for $80 above retail like they used to do with Nintendo Wii consoles. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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If you’re wondering where those anti-Google ads came from

Dave Farquhar Software December 17, 2012May 20, 20251990s, android, apple, IBM, ipad, macintosh, Microsoft Office, netbooks, windows 7, windows 8

If you’re wondering why political-style anti-Google ads are suddenly running everywhere, it’s no coincidence. Microsoft has hired one of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s advertising masterminds to try his hand at campaigning against Google.

While it seems to be having some effect on public opinion, its effect on market share and Microsoft’s bottom line will take more time to gauge. But I think in the long term, talking to customers and figuring out why they are walking out of Microsoft stores empty-handed will prove more effective. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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